A Film By Geoffrey Taylor

Things that fall apart

Contact

e geoff@wideeyed.co.ukw www.vimeo.com/geoffwideeyedt geoffwideeyedm 07974816807

Title: Things that fall apart

Logline

Breakdowns. Brain scans and Fatherhood. A dark coming of (30) aged comedy. Ed takes us on a strangely humorous, but poignant journey through his life as he goes down for a life changing operation.

Play Mood, rip reel.

Synopsis

Ed’s life was pretty uneventful until now. Ed is told he is ill. Ed is told he is going to be-come a dad. Ed was not expecting either. This is a strangely humorous and poignant story. We follow Ed on a chaotic and worrying journey as Ed goes down for a life changing operation. He looks back on his uneventful life as he tries to work out what he has done, what he wants and just maybe he can stop it from falling apart.

About the fear of the unknowns, illness and a lot of self loathing.

This film not only reflects on ED’s life, but on ours as we witness intimate, quiet, pa-thetic moments and bizarre, daunting and loud ones. We can all relate to this peculiar character and the film itself because at its heart, it’s very real.

A Film By Geoffrey Taylor

Things that falls apart

Director’s Mission Statement

‘Things that Fall Apart’ will be a strangely humorous and poignant love story. I want it to speak directly to its audience because at its heart it’s dealing with very real and common issues.

It’s an exciting journey for all involved, striving to make a fresh, off beat story about such everyday issues, such as brain scans – illness, babies – fatherhood - break-downs – the anxiety towards relationships and generally coping with the weight of the ‘norm.’

This freshness comes from personal experiences and the approach and tone. A tone that is not just humorous and awkward but shares moments of real intimacy and beau-ty. My challenge is merging two distinct styles and genres, dry dead pan, black comedy mixed with subtle fantastical beauty. As shown in my mood reel, I know it can work and I am looking forward to this challenge, to ground the audience in anxious, awk-ward moments, yet transcend them to fantastical memory moments - I want to make a film that ultimately moves its audience and one they can relate too.

Contemporary Context

This film is very much embedded in the now. The film subtly makes references to the current political and economic situation. The film also makes comments on lighter as-pects of society and early 30s relationships; moving in together– materialistic objects acquired, and creating a bubble (their house) to where all other darker aspects of real life can’t reach – until things start going wrong.

Visuals for Contemporary Context

There are subtle and visual references to contemporary context. We will be set-ting scenes in a variety of locations; as Ed tries to use a phone box – it doesn’t work anymore and he hears the monotonous tone of nothingness, - in the background some buildings are boarded up.

A scene takes place outside a job Centre – the queue comically goes out the door and around the building in a loop, people leave and re join the queue a subtle joke that “there are no jobs.” In fact there are a few scenes set in queues, this repetition is not only funny but also makes a light comment on British society.

A Film By Geoffrey Taylor

Things that fall apart

Visuals for Contemporary Context (Continued)

There is also visual metaphor to the couples relationship growing and this is shown too by the amount of furniture and DIY that builds up throughout the film. This is a witty reference to someone’s commitment and seriousness of their relationship, by the amount of products they have. When the relationship starts to fall apart, items in the house begin to break.

Colours

I want to create contrast between the cold, mute reality of the characters real life situ-ations and the strong selected colours of the fantastical moments of his memory and flash backs.

The overall colour will be one of dull, blues in the black and greens, though items in the locations may have bolder colours that stand out amongst this pale palette. For example red telephone and red light shades.

Sound

The sound design is very important. Mostly subtle and designed to represent the anxi-ety, heightened emotions and sense of underlying worry the character has. As we stay on the characters face reading his emotions often we will hear things we don’t see – the audience imagining beyond the frame.

The wind will be an recurring theme in the film – the wind will be howling from the be-ginning, dying down and picking up at different times – this represents the emotional state of our character and his relationship. But I also like that it’s a reference to our current climate changing.

Music

Music is minimalist and is mostly a clever mix of music and sound design, creating a powerful soundtrack as a whole.

At times, the film could burst into more complete tracks, I’m careful for the music not give too much emotional dominance. At certain moments I want to use tracks like used in my ‘mood rip reel,’ that are heard as loving and beautiful, yet placed under certain image sequences could also look ironic and comic. I still want to explore the potential of the music as a sound track.

A Film By Geoffrey Taylor

Things that fall apart

Location

The film is set in a modern day urban city, yet there are scenes of countryside and lanes as the couple visit parents and family and try to get out for a change of scenery. The characters memory moments and flash backs take us into the country-side and seaside, giving us the idea that the characters have moved to the city in their adult life. A lot of the action and scenes are played out in the intimacy of their home.

The film is written around generic places that depending on funding, could be set in most cities in the UK. However most of the scenes have been influenced by my time in Bristol and London and the countryside settings from Devon and Wales.

And Finally

I want to make film that pushes boundaries, its brave and tells a meaningful and important story through our loveable, insecure character. Its both bizarre, awkward yet tender.

Audiences can relate to this film as its about change and coping with it. Its a love story about a man trying to hold on as things around him as things begin to fall apart, a universal theme in many peoples lives.

It makes us reflect on what is important and worth holding onto when things do go wrong.

If I was given the opportunity to make this film it will enable me to expand my work with a more complex narrative and to be able to explore themes and styles in a story I’m passionate about. I relish the idea of making this and hope with the right pack-age, people and approach we will succeed.

Things that fall apart, References.

The films style and influences draw from a broad range of films for their characters, cinematography and overall tone.

You, The Living by Roy Andersson

You, The Living’ for the dark dead pan humor and stylized wide framing.

Punch Drunk Love by Paul Thomas Anderson.

The awkward and surreal ‘Punch Drunk Love.’ It’s powerful imagery, manic, neurotic sound design and its complex protagonist.

Things that fall apart, References.

Submarine by Richard Ayoade Submarine for it’s darkly comic tone. This is reflected in its dark lit images and fram-ing. I am particularly interested in the amount and use of wide shots that say a lot about the characters relationships to each other and sense of quirky environments. I also relate to the characters ironic humour. Complex, confused and at times a selfish person, but still the audience wants him to succeed.

Woody Allen

The characters quirks in Woody Allen’s films, such as ‘Annie Hall’. He’s often anxious, neurotic, pathetic and self-loathing but still a loveable character.

Things that fall apart, References.

The Things I Think About - By Geoffrey Taylor

The Things I Think About. - A short film that I directed, which is part of the trilogy. The awkwardness of the relationship in the scenes are often played out in static wide shots where we witness the scene unfold.

Buffalo 66 by Vincent Gallo.

Weird and darkly comic, Buffalo ‘66 is the story of the redemption of one almost- un-bearable character afflicted with a phobia about everything. This is a quirky script filled with a number of hilariously strange comic moment, lead by its central insecure character. Buffalo ‘66’s strange tone, makes this an engaging film.

Things that fall apart, References.

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly - By Julian Schnabel

Other visual and tonal references for our flash back and memory scenes on the opera-tion bed come from films such as ‘The Diving Bell and The Butterfly’ for it moving, play-ful imagination and use of POV from the protagonist.

A Film By Geoffrey Taylor

Things that falls apart

Background and history of the project

‘Things That Fall Apart’ is an important, personal story for me to tell. The film is based on real events taken both from close acquaintances’ lives and mine.

The film will be based on a character I have used and I am currently using in a trilogy of short films. These films deal with different issues and themes generally in a dark and comic way. These are films in their own right and hope to get them into festivals but also continue to explore my direction and tone.

This current longer project, Things That Fall Apart, is a separate story to these, yet would feel much like the same project. I even want to use a scene of each short in this longer film paying homage to the trilogy yet adding to the story.

Thing that fall apart also will build on mix magical and surreal moments I have also dealt with in previous works like ‘Breathe’ and ‘Isabella’ I’m keen to explore this mer-gence of dry reality and magical surreal escape.

Key talent

This film hopes to be a longer progression on the “The Things trilogy,” starring actor Ed Rapley ‘Things that fall apart’ hopes to use him as our protagonist ED.

I am confident that these films will show other producers and funders Ed’s abili-ties and why he is made for the part.

A Film By Geoffrey Taylor

Things that falls apart

Key talent (continued)

As for the wife character ‘SARAH’ I hope to use an actress trying to break into film or a well known actress looking for a change of direction. Foremost she must bring the right touch and feel to the film but I’ll be looking for someone who’s experience and popularity might be able to get further funding deals and ultimately bring audiences to see the project thus increasing revenue. A famous actress, out of reach but I think could portray such a role for example, would be Carry Mulligan: (An Education, Drive) for her, petite, young delicate charm.

Up and coming British Actresses that could suit include:

-

Felicity Jones: Like Crazy, Albatross

Romola Garai: One Day, The Hour, Whitelands

Karen Gillan: Doctor Who, Pond Life.

Amy Beth Hayes: The Syndicate, Shameless, Sirens, Eva.

Carry Mulligan: Drive.

Georgia King: The New Normal, Cockneys vs Zombies, Skins.

A Film By Geoffrey Taylor

Things that falls apart

Key talent (continued)

For other cameo parts including the Doctor, neighbours and parent characters; I want to get a mixture of brilliant non and professional actors I know from the-atre and film projects.

I am also hoping to invite some professional well known actors and celebrities I admire as stunt cameo parts that I think could suit the roles. These stunt cameo roles will be in bizzare and quirky scenes. They will only be needed for an af-ternoon or two to shoot the scenes. This is not only a good way to market our film, but they would add a comic, random element to it.

What is unique about the project and who would go to see it?

I feel it’s a brave film mixing two styles together, both dark dead pan comedy, with tender moments of beauty.

No story is original, but I feel there are very few films especially non Hollywood films that deal with mid twenties – thirties fatherhood, breakdowns and fears. So I feel with the right marketing we could really captivate a large non main-stream universal cinema audience.

I say ‘non mainstream’ because of the films tone and approach to the themes, I hope to target distributors that can sell it to non mainstream cinemas rather than mainstream cinema multi complexes.

The next stages.

The next stages of the project are to continue to develop the script, try to secure development funds, continue communication with the actor Ed Rapley work-ing on the story, but most importantly to pick up the right producer as soon as viable before pitching and funding can go ahead.

Secondly I want to finish off the “The Things” trilogy, to build up a portfolio for the project, to help bring in producers and funding and develop my direction and tone.

A Film By Geoffrey Taylor

Things that falls apart

Contact

e geoff@wideeyed.co.ukw www.vimeo.com/geoffwideeyedt geoffwideeyedm 07974816807